this forum is great. i have been away from the hobby for 30 years [:(] but ready to get started again. i have quite a few fleischmann loco’s from the 60’s all are in great shape. i am going to build a new layout from scratch except for the loco’s and rolling stock. with that said, should i go dcc or anolog? it seems like fleischmanns digital system also allows you to also run the anolog loco’s. i want to be able to run them, but since i am building from scratch would it be wise to do the layout in dcc?
also un-ballast track or ballast track. how realistic are the ballasted tracks. do you need to do somethink with them and should you put them on something for noise reduction?
Welcome back. That discribes many of us , I am back about 14 months. I hesitated to go DCC because I did not understand how easy it was and that my old engines would run on it. I waited over a year, bad move. I am now upgrading my old fleet to DCC. I f can do it anyone can. If you have the funds, go DCC with radio right off the bat and be happier sooner. I went flex track on WS foam roadbed on traditional L girder with riser tables. That worked very well. I am expermenting with foam insulation and WS plaster cloth for mountains, both work.
I don’t know anything about Flieshman DCC but Digitrax certainly works great. I assume some others do as well, but Digitrax is what the people around here use and its nice to have people around to talk to.
Welcome to this forum. They have been wonderful to me.
Welcome back. My fleet is also from the sixties, and it survived 40 years in various attics and basements. I went to DCC fairly early, and I just love it. With DCC, you can run 1 analog loco at a time, but you really won’t be happy with it. The engines running with DCC decoders are just so much more fun.
I use Atlas flex-track and Woodland Scenics foam roadbed, on top of a base of the 2-inch insulation foam. This is a pretty good combination from my standpoint. Most people who use the pre-built track find it very limiting, and eventually give up and switch over.
Welcome Back, DCC deserves serious consideration as the best time to install it would be in the initial construction stage. Trying retro-fit could become a huge under taking. Another thing to consider is trying to retro- fit a growing fleet. It is probably best to take your older engines and fit them now because as time goes by and the roster grows it would be a daunting challenge and serious budget drain to convert your motive power. I am currently a DC man, in between layouts, and planning to have my next layout which should begin consruction in the fall. I have amassed manyt many engines and am reluctant to enter in DCC. But, as the days goes by it is slowly dawning on me that this is the way to go. Anyway, welcome back, and have fun with whatever route you take.
Historical facts: I pulled everything out of 40 years in attics and basements. My hope was to resurrect as much as possible. The cardboard buildings had deteriorated to the point of worthlessness. The plastic buildings are all cheap, but my Scottish nature has brought a few back to reasonable appearance, others may find a place, and may not. My rolling stock was mostly plastic wheel, and all horn-hooks. I’ve got about half of it back, now, and the rest should follow. As for the locomotives, well…
Of the ten engines that used to run OK, I’ve got only 1 that was worth bringing up to modern standards. It’s an old Athearn F7 gear drive. It still growls like it always did, but it was good enough to merit a decoder and a lighting upgrade. The Athearn rubber-band drive engines were easy dummy conversions, and I used eBay to augment that old F7 and its pair of passenger coaches, so it’s now a complete A-B-A with a string of coaches ending with an observation car.
There is a great deal of satisfaction in pulling stuff out of the attic and upgrading it to running condition. A lot of it has to be written off, but the ones that are worth saving will give you more pleasure than anything you could buy new. Still, at some point you’ve got to accept the inevitable, and understand that you can replace an engine cheaper than you can re-hab an old one.
World’s Greatest Hobby? An understatement if I ever heard one.
Do give DCC very serious consideration. It’s pricey compaired to DC, but worth every penny as far as I’m concerned. Try to find a show, club or Local hobby shop that has DCC operating and ask to see a sound equiped Loco operated…that should make up your mind for you, it did for me. Good Luck…regards, John